Sundered Soul: A Wuxia/Xianxia Cultivation Novel

by Rick Scott

  Understanding came to her eyes then and she glanced towards Hu Dong and the lieutenant.

  “I see,” Olja said, sitting back. “I hope your companions come to agree with you as well.”

  Kenji then bowed and Olja returned it as best she could while within the chains.

  She grew quiet after that and remained on her knees, closing her eyes as if in meditation.

  Kenji stood and stepped away from the cage. “Thank you, Master Hu Dong, for the opportunity to show the warrior my gratitude.”

  “Is that it?” the lieutenant said, eyeing him strangely.

  “Yes,” Kenji said, bowing to her as well. “That is all.”

  * * *

  North…Why north?

  The idea rolled around inside Kenji’s mind as they made their way out of the mystic school. He supposed Olja had come from the north, and she’d originally tried to get him to come with her, but he still didn’t know why.

  “You speak queerly, boy,” the dour-faced lieutenant said. “Do you always take so keenly to foreigners?”

  His spine stiffened. Perhaps his emphasis of words had been too obvious.

  “The ones who save me from demons, yes,” he said quickly with a smile.

  The lieutenant continued to stare at him cryptically but didn’t say anything else. She then looked to Hu Dong. “I think it best if the prisoner were transported to the capital for questioning. I do not trust in the security of the facilities here.”

  “Oh,” Hu Dong said. “Well, of course…we are not a military installation after all.”

  “I’ll make the arrangements with my superiors.”

  Curse the fates…Kenji thought. He hadn’t expected that. If he wanted to find a means to free Olja, then now would have to be the time.

  As they neared the exit to the common hall, Kenji halted next to the rock garden. “Master Hu Dong?”

  Hu Dong stopped along with the lieutenant. “Yes?”

  “I wonder if I might have a word.” He then looked purposefully at the lieutenant. “I’d very much like to discuss how I too might be able to somehow join the mystic school.”

  “You?”

  “Yes, please… just a few moments.”

  The lieutenant nodded to Hu Dong and offered a swift bow.

  “I will leave you to your school, Master Hu Dong.”

  Hu Dong returned the bow and the lieutenant exited the common hall, taking to the air with Qinggong. She Windwalked right off the cliff, drifting in the sky a moment before descending to the village below.

  “So,” Hu Dong said. “What is it you believe you have to offer to the Lavender Sect, Kenji?”

  “I’m hoping quite a bit,” he said with a smile.

  Master Hu Dong let out a bemused chuckle. “I’m afraid without a doma there really isn’t much you could offer. Besides purely physical labor perhaps.”

  “Oh no,” Kenji said, and produced one of the pears for Hu Dong to see. “I believe I can offer you far more than that.”

  Kenji smiled inwardly as Hu Dong’s eyes grew wide with avarice and greed.

  “Perhaps I’ve judged too hastily,” the school master said with a grin. “Come…let us speak inside my office.”

  Chapter 27 – Catching Prey

  “There. Do you see it?”

  Chow Meugo strained his eyes as he followed where Li Wei was pointing into the jungle ahead of him. The Dao master crouched next to him in the low brush of the forest, while the witch, Zhe Ahn, stood behind them. Thick bamboo and ferns was all he could see, until finally movement caught his eye.

  There, perhaps a field’s width away, was a tiger lowering itself slowly from out of a tree.

  “Are you sure that’s it?”

  “Wait and see,” Li Wei said.

  They’d been tracking the beast along the river for nearly two days, but they were yet to actually see the thing. They had proceeded by blind faith alone, heading in directions Li Wei had only guessed the beast had gone. With the final portion of their bounty on the line, he prayed to the heavens they hadn’t been wasting their time.

  As the tiger stalked forward, a panicked bleating filled the air. A few paces from the tiger a deer lay injured on its side. It tried to clamber to its feet, desperate to flee from the predator, but its hind leg appeared wounded, pierced by an arrow and covered in blood.

  Silently, the tiger pounced, and the panicked bleating stopped as the deer swiftly craned its long neck towards its attacker. Long piercing teeth shot from out of the deer’s mouth as it latched onto the tiger’s face with a snake-like bite. The tiger snarled and thrashed as the deer hung on to it, its skin peeling back to reveal the skull-like face of the demon. It grew in size, fully shedding the outer carcass of the deer as it slammed the tiger into the side of a tree. The tiger stopped moving and the beast began to devour it with rapid, savage bites.

  Zhe Ahn chuckled. “That’s right…. Grow strong, my pet. Feed.”

  Chow Meugo shuddered at the sight. “If it were truly your pet, you’d be able to tame it. At least we found the cursed thing.”

  “It moves no further than here,” Li Wei said. “Luring prey only. It’s healing itself, I believe.”

  Chow Meugo then noted the arrow was still sticking through its back, although now it appeared more like a half-broken spear. “So it did attack someone as you said.” They’d passed by the riverbank some time ago, where Li Wei had noted traces of a skirmish. “Where do you think it will head now?”

  “Nowhere,” Zhe Ahn aid. “It’s reached its destination already.”

  “What do you mean?”

  The witch was then the one to point. “In the trees…warding glyphs. It’s here because it can’t get past them.”

  Chow Meugo could barely pick out the tethered ropes and ceramic chimes dangling from the branches of the high trees.

  “A village is up ahead. The prey must be there.”

  “Should we go in and take a look?” Li Wei asked.

  “No…” Chow Meugo said, keenly recalling Purple Leaf’s instructions. “We stay out of the villages.”

  “We know his name now,” Zhe Ahn said. “We get in and get out. And get our payment quicker.”

  “I said no!” he said more forcefully. Chow Meugo still recalled the way the man had so easily held him aloft. He had to be close to a 20th Dan. “We’re not dealing with a normal job here…or client. That man was a general and he just destroyed an entire village and killed his own men to keep us a secret. We could be in the middle of some kind of coup here.”

  That caused them both to back down.

  “Sounds like grounds for a renegotiation of terms if you asked me,” Zhe Ahn said with a huff.

  Chow Meugo pondered the thought. The witch could be right. “We’ll play it straight first. If the opportunity for leverage presents itself, we’ll take it.”

  Li Wei grinned. “Sounds good to me.”

  “Get close enough to find out where we are exactly,” Chow Meugo said to the Dao master. “And then send Purple Leaf the message.”

  Zhe Ahn nodded with a smile. “Very well…I’m off to catch us a sparrow.”

  Chapter 28 – For but a rope

  Kenji wrestled with his thoughts as he followed Master Hu Dong back through the corridors of the mystic school. He’d created this opportunity under the guise of joining the mystic school, but in truth he could care less about that. Freeing Olja and learning why she had come was his only true aim. But he doubted Hu Dong would risk treason bartering for something like that for only a single pear.

  Even one that was grown from a two-hundred-year-old tree.

  Entering the same room he had mistaken earlier for a library, Hu Dong knelt in seiza behind his low desk and Kenji sat opposite him. Behind Hu Dong was a shelf full of books and Kenji’s eyes raced over it, scanning for his father’s journal.

  “So what could I offer you for that?” Hu Dong said with a smile, gesturing to the pear still within Kenji’s hand.

  He could simply
ask for time alone to speak with Olja, he supposed, but that would be far too suspicious and the last thing he needed was to give someone like Hu Dong more leverage over him. He’d have to be clever about this, and that meant getting what he wanted without revealing his true intentions. The first thing he would require, however, was access.

  “I would not ask for much,” Kenji said, bowing his head. “Only to be allowed to observe some of the teachings here. And I could indeed make use of my physical strength in the school’s service. Cleaning perhaps, if you were also to allow me a place to stay?”

  Hu Dong chuckled. “You wish to be a janitor?”

  “I understand my station,” Kenji said. “If that is my only value, then so be it.”

  He then rested the pear upon Hu Dong’s desk and the school master stared at it hungrily. It took him only a few seconds to snatch it up. “You have a deal, young Kenji. You may reside as a custodian of the grounds and will be free to observe the classes. However, as you are not an officially enrolled student, it would not be permissible for you to stay in the dormitories or to practice alongside those who have paid. Is that understood?”

  Better than he had expected. And if all went as he hoped, he would need stay no more than a single night at the school. Long enough to free Olja and depart.

  “I understand,” Kenji said, bowing deeply again. “I thank you, Master Hu Dong, for your generosity.”

  “I will make a space for you here within the main schoolhouse. You may settle in tonight.”

  “Thank you again.”

  It was sickening to play this sort of game, but Kenji was surprised at how easily it came to him. Perhaps this was the way of the world—those with power harvesting more than their share through bribery and those with cunning to use it against them. Such was this case. And now he would use Hu Dong’s avarice to work even greater in his favor.

  “As I mentioned before, however,” Kenji added. “This is not my only offer of service.”

  Hu Dong’s brows rose in interest. “Oh?”

  “While my ‘chief’ is correct in that I share no blood with my late father, I was still raised by Elder Xian Lu as his son. I have been instructed in the intricacies of the Han arts. That pear is but a sample. If you wish for your very own tree then such could be arranged.”

  Hu Dong stared at him a moment before letting out a huff. “And how would that be so? You have no doma to practice.”

  “The imbuing of the glyphs requires but a rudimentary understanding of the arts. Even you I could instruct in which meridians to open to do so. The true art, however, lies in the scripting and threading of the ropes. If you would but allow me access to my belongings I could prepare for you a rope to harvest whatever tree you wish.”

  Hu Dong chuckled. “Is that so?”

  Kenji bowed deeply again. “It is my humble request. I will honor the trade my chief has already made with you on my behalf, but the Han arts are all I know. And what I am most gifted in. Even our new chief is ignorant in its instruction.”

  The school master chuckled. “That much I perceived already.”

  “So long as I am able to practice the Han arts, I care not where my tools reside,” Kenji said. “Or who officially owns them in the end.”

  Hu Dong twisted his lips, considering the offer and Kenji prayed he had lied efficiently enough.

  Finally the school master nodded. “Very well, boy. I will allow you access to my office in order to read the texts and render the scripts.”

  Thank the fates…

  “But everything must remain within this room. How long would it take to produce such a rope?”

  “Perhaps only a day or so. I could start even today if you wish. After the funeral, of course.”

  “Yes, of course,” Hu Dong said, nodding as if satisfied. He then turned about and removed several books from the shelf and placed them in a small cabinet alongside his sack of ropes that was already stowed within. “You may find your things here when you return.”

  Kenji prostrated himself, touching his forehead to the floor. “Thank you, great master, for your generosity and understanding.”

  “If you perform well,” he said. “This could become a routine task for you. You could even follow in your father’s tradition.”

  “Such would be my hope and dream, Master Hu Dong,” Kenji said, and then he added to seal the deal, “in Han, producing saplings for sale was something that always brought us good return.”

  A wide grin spread across Hu Dong’s face, his eyes filled with greed. “Come, I’ll gather the students to announce your employment …as my new personal steward.”

  * * *

  Kenji suppressed his inward smile as Chet Fai’s face turned bright red.

  The entire school was gathered upon the square. The higher-ranking class members were sat at the front with the newest members, including Chet Fai and Shinoto, sat at the back. Kenji stood at Master Hu Dong’s side as he continued to introduce him.

  “So you may see Kenji about the school performing his duties,” he said. “I ask that you give him your full support as you would any newcomer to the school. Let us congratulate him now and encourage him in his work.”

  The entire school then clapped and Kenji took a low bow. “I thank you everyone for welcoming me. I will aim to do my very best in my new role.”

  The assembly broke then and Shinoto immediately came running to him followed by Chet Fai. The young girl hugged him. “This is brilliant, Kenji! You found a way for us to all still be together again!”

  “Yes, he did,” Chet Fai said with a fake smile. “Congratulations.”

  Kenji returned the smile. “I wish it were my doing, but I suppose Master Hu Dong had pity on me. You have him to thank.”

  Chet Fai scowled, perhaps detecting the blatant lie, but then Kenji added, to rub more salt to the wound, “It’s like you say, Chet Fai. Karma is the true decider, not fate.”

  “Indeed,” Chet Fai said.

  “I’m going to prepare for the funeral now. I trust I’ll see you both there?”

  “Yes of course,” Shinoto said and then she whispered to him as he hugged her again. “I’m so glad you’ll be here with us. I didn’t know what I was going to do if I were here all alone.”

  Her words made him pause a moment. Despite everything, Shinoto was still the most important person he had left in the world. Could he truly leave her behind?

  She gave him a final hug, but then Chet Fai lingered while Shinoto departed to rejoin her new classmates.

  “I thought we had an agreement,” Chet Fai said, his eyes cross.

  “We still do,” Kenji said flippantly. “But I can’t dictate the wishes of Master Hu Dong. If you have a problem with me staying here, I suggest you take the matter up with him.”

  Chet Fai glowered but he didn’t say anything else.

  Kenji turned and left him standing there. As he started his descent down the steep stairs, Kenji released a smile of joy. He’d done it; he’d found a way both into the school and to regain his belongings. But his task was far from over. Chet Fai was perhaps already planning his next scheme to derail what he’d put into place, but it wouldn’t matter. He had a plan of his own and all it would require now was the use of his doma.

  Luckily for him…he was in a place that specialized in the healing arts.

  Chapter 29 – Hidden Gem

  Kenji took the lead chopping most of the wood for the funeral pyre. Three of Mei Ling’s orderlies joined him in the work, but being much younger and stronger than the middle-aged men, he made short work of hewing down the thin-trunked sablewood trees upon the edge of the village.

  He did most of the carrying as well, lugging the logs to an area behind the healing house that was cleared of grass and looked to have been specially prepared for this purpose. The work was hard but nothing he wasn’t used to doing while tending to the orchards. Thoughts of his home played in his mind while he worked—thoughts of he and Waru working the orchard together, laughing and cajoling
as he did now with the men from the village.

  Good, simple folk they were, the same as Waru—void of the pretension and arrogance of those who held power and rank, and those who craved it. Kenji held short but pleasant conversations with them, which consisted mostly of them joking about how strong he was and how he’d soon put them out of a job.

  The work went fast and by noon the funeral pyre was built and he stood viewing it alongside Master Mei Ling.

  “I understand you’ve been offered a job with the mystic school,” Mei Ling said. “It will be a shame for the healing house to be robbed of such strong hands. My men can’t stop talking about you.”

  Kenji laughed. “You may have yourself to blame for that, Master Mei Ling.”

  She regarded him quizzically. “Oh?”

  “I took your advice,” he said with a grin. “Slowly taking back what’s mine.”

  Mel Ling smiled. “Well good for you then.”

  Kenji stared at the pyre and breathed a heavy sigh at what now lay ahead. Keeping busy kept his mind free from what the actual task was for. In truth he did not look forward to it, but at least he would have the opportunity to bid his friend a proper farewell.

  “We’ll prepare to light the pyre at sundown,” she said, perhaps sensing his thoughts as he continued to gaze at the pyre.

  “My thanks.” Kenji bowed to her.

  As his mind returned to the present and the tasks that lay ahead, nerves entered his stomach. He steeled himself as he prepared to ask Mei Ling for what he needed from her next. He had no idea how his doma was ‘sealed’ or if something like that could reveal who he actually was, but he needed to find some way to remove it, and the doctor seemed like someone he could trust. If he wanted to be strong enough to forge his own path and take back what was his, he’d have to start with this.

  “Master Mei Ling,” Kenji said formally. “I have an unusual request.”

  She cocked her head at him. “Oh?”

  “I suffer an infirmity of the doma, as you know,” he said, trying to leave it as vague as possible. “I was wondering if you might be so kind as to examine me for a cure.”